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How I lost 90 pounds living the Word of Wisdom: Part 1.

I love being a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter – Day Saints. I love it’s culture, it’s people, it’s truth, it’s doctrine and the many blessing that comes from living the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is Obvious by my title in which particular doctrine I’m most excited about. Word of Wisdom or the ironical abbreviation, W.O.W!

In the teaching of the, W.O.W, which is found more directly in Doctrine and Covenants 89 we learn that,

” In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation—

5) That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him.

6) And, behold, this should be wine, yea, pure wine of the grape of the vine, of your own make.” ( see the rest of the doctrine and promises by clicking the link Doctrine and Covenants 89: 3-12)”

WOW!

Some of these, if not all of the topics have been at some point overwhelming and controversial. For example, how the claim of a glass of wine is good for the antioxidants, well, so is a glass filled with water, berries, cucumber, pineapple and a drop of apple cider vinegar does the job even better. It taste better too. Also, many unread people point to Christ by justifying that Christ drank wine but yet don’t understand the symbolism of the times of when he drank the wine and Jewish traditions behind it. Some even reassure themselves that there was not drinking water in those days, well not so, it’s impossible (you can get more info on agricultural history books and the specific regions and years on when water was scares through out time). Just on what we read, there are many Biblical reference however, on where drinking water is found. One popular account (and one of my favorites) is that of the Woman on the well when she meets the Savior. ( I won’t give you the reference, go find it yourself, it teaches a great doctrine.)

But we all know how bad Alcohol is without even trying to be religious or, a “Mormon”. according to the Center for Disease and Prevention, (CDC) alcohol was one of the leading cause of death between 2006 and 2010. But so is Diabetes, Heart disease in the same categories of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, it’s even beat Aids. But Alcohol is just one thing. In section 89 it mentions Hot drink which we now is Coffee, tea and later, illegal drugs, this does not include drugs prescribe by doctors through proper analysis and conclusion about what medicine one may need to take. But even Prescribed drugs have been a danger for a while now.

Look, the reasons as to why people drink, smoke and take any harmful drugs are many, yet only 1 reason why not to do so, and that is because a supreme being, let’s call him GOD, or Heavenly Father aka, Elohim revealed to modern-day Prophets that we should take care of the bodies that where lend to us and “bought with a Price” (See 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. ) Yep, the body we have is not even ours, Christ paid it with his own blood, so who do we think we are to abuse it?

Now, I have mentioned the obvious about what not to have in the topic of commandments, but what about the things that are not emphasized, that are sort of left in the dark? I’ll name a few in which mostly all of us partake of it often. So here are a few.

Sodas or Pop

Candy

Chocolate

Fried Food

High fructose foods

Snacks

sugar (apparently is more addicting than cocaine now.)

Processed foods

The problem with these things are not that they are unhealthy, the problem is the amount of it that we eat. According to CDC’s report, 36.5% of Americans are obese or over weight, that’s a lot of Pop! The W.O.W, is not there just to protect you from a few substances, it’s there to teach you on how to be wise with the way you treat your body, even if it’s from a piece of candy. But more important, the W.O.W will teach you the why.

Again, there are many reasons as to why and how to blame the cause of these numbers.We can blame politics, race, education bad use of free agency, marketing campaigns etc. Look at this older chart from WWU and how it goes into detail of race and education etc. Although I agree that our surroundings can really influence our choices to such and extend that they become part of you, I also can guarantee you have a choice in the long run, that your body will be the best influence in teaching you what is right for you to partake of and whats not good for you to partake of.

MY STORY

Many who know me know that I grew up poor although my parents never made it seem that way. I was also a pretty skinny kid until I was 10. At 8 my family moved from South America to the States. The new move brought many exciting things to our family. One of them was the way we ate. It was not long, our diets began to change. In fact the first meal we ever had in the states was pizza from dominos. Our cousins bough them for us and she filled the fridge with processed cheese, white bread, plenty of bologna and soda. This was American food which it was expensive back in south America and food that we probably had maybe once before. This became the trend. More process food, more fast foods relatively available. I mean, we would eat KFC about twice a week, pizza another day and buffets on the weekends. However my siblings didn’t gain a pound, but I did. during High school, I lost the weight again. I was thin for several years until I decided to become a Chef. Guess what happened to me during that situation? I was on that slope for years. Up and Down, up and down.

Things Change for me when I serve my Mission to Texas Fort Worth (BMW or Best Mission in the World) at one point my Mission President gave all the missionaries an un-prioritize challenge to lose 200 pounds as a zone of 20 plus Missionaries. That was enough for me. Without me know, quietly our zone began to lose weight little by little. No one thought the challenge had been taken seriously. But I had. I asked permission to my President if I could, along with my companion, wake up 30 minutes before so, at 6 am. He approved. Missionaries in the same apartment complex who had eaten one too many Tortillas and ate diner with us every night, also followed the same schedule.

This may no seem like a huge deal, but sleep is a very coveted luxury for a missionary to give up, specially when your dieting and over exercising every day. But my companions and I were determined.

I began to eat less and eat healthier. More water and less sodas, more salads and less Tacos and Tortillas. It also helped that we were on bikes during one of the hottest metroplex in 2011, Arlington, Texas. I calculated everything I ate, from how many possible calories I consumed, to how many steps I made and possible calories lost. I wrote everything down. I went from being a 256 pound missionary to 215-218 pounds in two months. That’s about 36 pounds give or take.

However, I must admit also had gotten some brief information about counting calories from a brother in the first Ward I ever attended that was becoming a doctor. At the time he was doing research on the fastest way to lose weight. Him with other colleges and other universities came to the conclusion that calories was the way to focus when it came to weight lost. The question was then, how can we do so faster? I was told that about 3,500 calories equals 1 pound of body fat and if I was to do nothing the whole day, I was to lose 2,000 to 2,500 calories a day depending on your body hight and weigh or size. But if I was to have a proper diet, exercise properly, then I can calculate my intake with my exercise and what ever calories were left after the day was over, then that’s the amount I would lose.

So here is a simple way to put it,

If in one day I decided to run for a mile and let’s say I lost 500 calories. That left me at negative 500 calories from the daily 2500 that I had to lose (which means I would lose these much on that day). If I was to do nothing the whole day I would that I would lose 2500 + 500 = 3000 calories lost. That is of course with the idea that my body at the time was losing an amount of 2k to 2.5k calories a day without doing anything. This was if I did not eat of course. But if the next day I decide to not run and not eat and just live, I would lose 2,500 so that left me at negative 5500 calories that means I lost 1 pound and have and extra 2,000 to play with for the next day. Again, this is without eating. If I ate (which I did) I would have to add the calories I ate.

These are extreme and unhealthy results because I was not eating, so the Idea is to eat enough to maintain your health, but exercise a little harder. I was eating not more than 2,000 calories or even less in a day and exercising enough to lose 1,000 or more. So I was losing about 2,000 calories a day, give or take.

That’s how I was able to lose so much weight is such a short period of time. Here is a small chart to help you better understand my daily 2,500 calories, based on my weight and hight. Increase in total calories lost is good, decrease is bad

Breakfast: Half low calorie yogurt with half and apple: + 50 to 75 calories… down to -2,950 or -2,925 calories.

Start my day on bike: – 500 calories…. I’m now up to losing 3,425 calories, give or take 25 calories.

Lunch: Salad with small Sandwich or just salad: +400 calories. Back down to 3025 calories

Back on the bike: – negative 300 calories, up again 3,325 calories give or take.

dinner:+ 500, 800 calories dinner was tricky. Now to 2,825 or 2,525

Back on the bike with less heat and not sun fewer rides: 250 calories. up to 2775

Total calories lost: 2775

This means that in top of my 2500 calories that I would naturally lose I could add another 275 lost. That means within 3 to 5 days, I would lose a pound.

I must says that I eventually got to eating 1500 or 1000 calories a days once I got into the rhythm of it. You body adjust quickly and your stomach naturally shirks. Which help because smaller portions will fill you up.

Look, I am not a doctor and I DO NOT recommend for you to try my diets or any diets before speaking with your doctor, nor am I saying they will work for you. They did for me. What I am saying is that when your diets don’t work, is not because they are incompetent, maybe, but it is because they are not the right ones for you. The diet worked for me because I started out on a spiritual note of obedience and then moved into a physical one. You see it made sense for me. I had a purpose other than to fill healthy, other than to look good. Once I had that I worked my rear off…. Literally =)… I only choose a number of things to eat and I knew all their calories. I also knew I would possibly eat things not on that list that my member or investigators would give us so I then too calculated the amount of calories. I had a mental chart so I was constantly knowing what I was eating and how much or when I needed to stop eating.

I’ll finish with this. That doctor that gave me this information told me that his brother lost 40lb eating McDonald’s. Why the Big mac. His brother became committed to proof him wrong, that his diet ways of counting calories would not work. So, there he was, eating fries, burgers, shakes. But remember, he did not cross the 2k calorie mark and he did exercise everyday. It works.

THE 3 ZONES OF WEIGHT LOST

I still need to be more clear. The calorie diets does work and weight lost is obviously great for everyone but you don’t just want to lose the weight. Here are my 3 zones of a complete stage from diet to weight lost.

Finding your proper way of losing weight, reason and purpose. Set goals and then plan how to achieve them.

Lose weigh through the proper way that fits your needs and your body. Achieve the goal. You will. It’s not impossible and you will educate yourself on it.

Once weight is lost, change your eating habits and transform your body. Remember that at this stage, you are a new person, you are trying to get to know your self and feel comfortable with your self. Set goals ahead of time on what you will do to keep your weight off. This has been my biggest challenged. And I did not know this, until I put a good amount of my weight back on…

Speaking on a more doctrinal level, this is the 5th point on the gospel of Jesus Christ which missionaries teach everyday, all day. Enduring to the end…

For me the point 3 has been the most challenging, because my goal was just to lose the weight and that’s that. That for me was the miracle and big deal. When one loses weight, things can’t get back to normal and the normal sometime means, going back to your old ways.

After my mission, I got down to 155 pounds from the 256 I was on when I first started. People where now telling me to stop losing weight. A year after I got married I began to gradually gain weight. I got to 190 and then 215-220. In a matter of 8 month I came back down to 175 again. But I have now gain much of the weight back again. I am currently 230 pounds. But now I’m wiser.

I have asked my self why? I mean, I know the reason why, I eat too darn much and don’t put the time to exercising. Life is literally way too busy. It’s taken me a month to write this blog while before I would do so in an hour or two. I have a restaurant in which I oversee everything, I am a Bishop and more importantly, I have a family. I know, I know, excuses, excuses. It maybe an excuse because I know I can still set 15 to 30 minutes of work out time regardless of how tired I am. But not so much because it is true. With that said, remember point 2. defining your purpose. Purpose gives you reason and reason pushes mortals to take action on the why.

I hope some of this helps. You can always contact me via email or comment, there is a whole lot more to cover such as recipes, exercise routines, before and after pics and what I’ll be doing differently this time since I am being stretched in some many directions.

This blog is the first of many blogs about losing the weight again. I will be giving you updates every two weeks on Tuesday to show and prove to you that you can lose weight by keeping the word of wisdom and not leaving a life of diets. Yes, I eventually I do have to get my weight down. But dietS SHOULD NOT be forever, it is momentarily, keeping the word of wisdom, is a life style.